Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I consider “Loaded Baked Potato Soup” to be one of the best comfort foods around. It is a soothing soup; welcome on a cold winter night. When I bake potatoes, I often prepare a few extra and then make this creamy, flavorful soup. There’s something about this soup which is very satisfying. My recipe skips the heavy cream — it is a low-fat version — and is much more healthy. But you wouldn’t know.  Next time you bake potatoes, try making this soup with the leftovers.

“Loaded Baked Potato Soup” is a simple soup recipe. Then load up the soup when serving it at the table by adding all toppings that you desire–sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions and creative toppings such as broccoli. The soup shown here includes bits of ham for flavor; this evening I made a variation with bacon.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup with Flavor

The key to making potato soup is to use potatoes with lots of flavor. Sounds simple, but some potatoes have very little taste. I have found that the giant, over-sized Russet potatoes sold at our local grocery store have the best flavor–so I always purchase these. Stick with what works. Here are three baked, left-over potatoes. The total weight is 1 lb 14 oz.

Russet potatoes are mealy, they tend to fall apart after baking which is what you want in a creamy soup. I leave some of the skin on, because most of the flavor and nutritional value resides in the skin.

Soup Ingredients:

For seasonings, I use an onions, pepper (either white pepper or black pepper), ground thyme and Tabasco Pepper Hot Sauce. Nothing complicated — but enough to add flavor and zip. I use sodium-reduced Swanson brand chicken broth in addition to low-fat milk . Many potato soup recipes use cream or half-and-half. I find that this soup, made with low-fat or skim milk, has plenty of flavor and not as many calories.

Making Baked Potato Soup

Step One: To make the soup, first bake the potatoes. When potatoes bake, they release steam, so poke holes all over the raw potatoes with a fork or knife prior to baking to let the steam escape. Coat each potato with a little vegetable oil prior to roasting in the oven. Bake in a hot, 400 degree, oven for an hour. For this recipe I use about 2 lb of Russet potatoes which is 3 giant potatoes. This makes 6 servings.

Step Two: After the potatoes cook and cool down, peel and dice. I usually mash one of the potatoes and dice the rest. Also, I leave the peelings on about half of the potatoes. A potato ricer, one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, works for mashing the potatoes; but these baked potatoes usually just fall apart. Set aside while making the soup.

Step Three: Next, saute the onions until translucent in a little margarine (or bacon grease). Add the ham and saute a few minutes longer. If using bacon, I dice 4 pieces of bacon, fry until crisp, and then remove the bacon and most of the drippings. Saute the onions in just a little of the bacon drippings.

Make a “White Roux”

Step Four: Thicken the soup by making a “white sauce” or “cream sauce” with milk, flour and margarine. In Louisiana, this is called a “white roux.” Here are the ingredients for the low-fat cream sauce.

This is the same “white sauce” or “roux” used in other Cajun recipes — but it is easier to make than a roux. A roux needs extensive stirring to brown the flour. Don’t cook the “roux” long enough to brown the flour in this recipe.

To make this white sauce, add the margarine to the onions and ham on the stove, then add the flour and blend in, then slowly stir in the milk.

Step Five: Add in the reserved, cooked mashed and diced potatoes, chicken broth and seasonings — including Tabasco Pepper Hot Sauce — and heat everything through.

Spinkle bacon pieces on top, if using. Pass green onions, shredded cheese and any other toppings. That’s it. Enjoy this soup on a cold, rainy or snowy night!